“All good do I accept at thy command, O God, and think, speak, and do it.  I believe in the pure law; by every good work seek I forgiveness for all sins.  I keep pure for myself the serviceable work and abstinence from the unprofitable.  I keep pure the six powers,—­thought, speech, work, memory, mind, and understanding.  According to thy will am I able to accomplish, O accomplisher of good, thy honor, with good thoughts, good words, good works.

   “I enter on the shining way to Paradise; may the fearful terror of hell
   not overcome me!  May I step over the bridge Chinevat, may I attain
   Paradise, with much perfume, and all enjoyments, and all brightness.

“Praise to the Overseer, the Lord, who rewards those who accomplish good deeds according to his own wish, purifies at last the obedient, and at last purifies even the wicked one of hell.  All praise be to the creator, Ormazd, the all-wise, mighty, rich in might; to the seven Amshaspands; to Ized Bahram, the victorious annihilator of foes.”

   “HYMN TO A STAR.

“The star Tistrya praise we, the shining, majestic, with pleasant good dwelling, light, shining, conspicuous, going around, healthful, bestowing joy, great, going round about from afar, with shining beams, the pure, and the water which makes broad seas, good, far-famed, the name of the bull created by Mazda, the strong kingly majesty, and the Fravashi of the holy pure, Zarathustra.

“For his brightness, for his majesty, will I praise him, the star Tistrya, with audible praise.  We praise the star Tistrya, the brilliant, majestic, with offerings, with Haoma bound with flesh, with Mauthra which gives wisdom to the tongue, with word and deed, with offerings with right-spoken speech.”

“The star Tistrya, the brilliant, majestic, we praise, who glides so softly to the sea like an arrow, who follows the heavenly will, who is a terrible pliant arrow, a very pliant arrow, worthy of honor among those worthy of honor, who comes from the damp mountain to the shining mountain.”

   “HYMN TO MITHRA.

“Mithra, whose long arms grasp forwards here with Mithra-strength; that which is in Eastern India he seizes, and that which [is] in the Western he smites, and what is on the steppes of Rauha, and what is at the ends of this earth.

“Thou, O Mithra, dost seize these, reaching out thy arms.  The unrighteous destroyed through the just is gloomy in soul.  Thus thinks the unrighteous:  Mithra, the artless, does not see all these evil deeds, all these lies.

“But I think in my soul:  No earthly man with a hundred-fold strength thinks so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength thinks good.  No earthly man with a hundred-fold strength speaks so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength